Latrobe Magnesium Limited (ASX:LMG) has strengthened its board with a new non-executive director.
Michael Wandmaker joined the team today, bringing with him both international and domestic engineering and management expertise.
Most recently, Wandmaker served as managing director at Victoria’s Melbourne Water for more than seven years. He was also an executive general manager at Sydney Water for three years.
Outside his water industry posts, Michael spent two years at Transfield Services, as well as two-and-a-half years as COO and acting chief executive for engineering company UGL.
“Significant M&A experience”
“Michael is an experienced senior executive with a strong track record of success in building and implementing corporate strategies to deliver operational excellence and profitable growth in large, complex, asset-intensive organisations,” Latrobe stated in a market announcement today.
“He brings a breadth and depth of leadership and operational experience at the chief executive level, covering a wide range of public and private industry sectors.
“He has had significant M&A experience, and has successfully integrated large complex (unionised) construction, engineering, infrastructure, defence and utility businesses,” the company concluded.
Graduating from Monash University with a Bachelor of Engineering, majoring in Mechanical and Computing, Michael has worked both internationally and in Australia on managing large scale engineering projects and companies.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers and has qualified as a GAICD.
About Latrobe
Latrobe Magnesium is developing a magnesium production plant in Victoria's Latrobe Valley using its world-first patented extraction process.
The company intends to extract and sell magnesium metal and cementitious material from industrial fly ash, which is currently a waste stream from the Yallourn brown coal power generation.
LMG has already completed a feasibility study validating the combined hydromet/thermal reduction process that extracts the metal.
Construction is estimated to start on site on its initial 1,000-tonne-per-annum magnesium plant in the first quarter of 2022. with production commencing up to 12 months later in the first quarter of 2023.
The plant will then be expanded to a 10,000-tonne-per-annum magnesium operation shortly thereafter, and further plant capacity expansion will be considered once the 10,000-tonne plant is operating successfully.
The plant will be in the heart of Victoria’s coal power generation precinct, providing immediate access to feedstock, infrastructure, and labour.
Down the line, LMG plans to sell the refined magnesium under long-term contracts to US and Japanese customers. Currently, Australia imports 100% of the 8,000 tonnes it consumes every year.
Magnesium has the best strength-to-weight ratio of all common structural metals and is increasingly used in the manufacture of car parts, laptop computers, mobile phones, and power tools.
Latrobe says its project is at the forefront of environmental benefit, because it will recycle power plant waste and serve as a low CO2 emitter.